Thousands flee Syria onslaught as death toll passes 100

Rebels from Faylaq al-Rahman launched a counterattack on government forces overnight and captured most of the territory they had lost in Eastern Ghouta's southern town of Hamouriyeh, Abdel Rahman said. In the capital Damascus, the Syrian army continued its military offensive against the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, capturing new areas on Wednesday while securing the evacuation of civilians from areas in Eastern Ghouta.

Victims lay dead on the streets in pools of blood, according to a video posted the Observatory, which monitors Syria's seven-year civil war and which put the death toll at 18.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the area for three weeks, a campaign that has killed 1,300 civilians.

Mr Ja'afari said the government will allow convoys with medical supplies and other aid into the area "if the security circumstances allow".

The media office for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led and USA -backed force that operates in the Kurdish autonomous region, said at least 30 people were wounded in Friday's attacks.

The UN rights office said it had been receiving "deeply alarming" reports from Afrin "that civilians are being prevented from leaving Afrin city by Kurdish forces" and were being held to be used as human shields.

The eastern Ghouta town of Douma, where many people are sheltering, has been spared the worst of the shelling in recent days, a resident said.

"There is fighting on the northern edge of the city", the Britain-based monitoring organisation said.

Turkey and allied rebels have waged a almost two-month offensive on the Afrin region, which is held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Syrians believe they can distinguish Russian aircraft from those of the Syrian army because the Russians fly at higher altitude.

The Kurdish YPG militia, defending Afrin, said it was battling the Turkish forces and their Syrian militia allies who tried to storm the town from the north. "A future filled with calm and peace awaits you in Afrin", it said.

He accused the United Nations and other governments of doing nothing to alleviate the suffering "of tens of thousands of people who have tried to flee terrorism".

The leaflets claimed that civilians seeking to flee Afrin would be guaranteed safety by the Turkish military and urged Syrian Kurdish fighters to "trust the hand we extend to you".

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